Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Program Analyst

The WBG-AESP was a $150 Million program to design water and road projects and provide construction oversight of these projects to benefit Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As the Operations and Compliance Manager Mr. Effinger was part of the senior management team reporting directly to the Chief of Party and directly managed a staff of 14 Palestinians responsible for all procurement, accounting, audits, subcontractor management including contractual modifications and staffing for approximately 130 local subcontractor staff and 3 subcontracting companies, fleet management of 51 government and leased vehicles, security and permitting and all compliance related issues. Mr. Effinger reported directly to the Chief of Party and coordinated directly with the USAID Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) and contract specialist. In this capacity, and through my experience on previous USAID and Department of State projects, I have developed a strong working knowledge of FAR, AIDAR and other US Code regulations and requirements.

• Program Manager leading the division’s six person program management office (PMO. Responsible for coordinating and managing all cybersecurity acquisitions, contracts, annual budget development and submission, internal communications, cybersecurity policy development, business process reorganization and SharePoint management and improvements.

• Integration Program Manager for the General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service, Office of General Supplies and Services (GSA/FAS/OSS) Program Management Office• The Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) project was a GSA effort to transition legacy vendors to the EDI on the IBM Sterling Order Management (OMS) – a state of the art solution being adopted to more efficiently handle government procurements and track detailed transaction information. As a project manager on the project, supported the communications, tracking, risk management and contingency planning to onboard more than thirty legacy GSA vendors as they transitioned to the EDI system.• The Financial Integration project was a joint effort involving the GSA, U.S. Navy Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers (COMFRC) and the Defense Industrial Financial Management System (DIFMS) to assist the Navy in meeting federal audit requirements concerning the tracking of detailed procurement data between the government and vendors. As the project manager, acted as the primary lead in coordination, communication and tracking of the project. Managed all stakeholder interactions and marshalled resources from various teams in each agency to develop file standards and protocols, draft interagency agreements and complete data transfer testing.

• Director of Finance, Administration and Compliance for the $60 million USAID Project for the Good Governance in the Republic of South Sudan• Led the finance, procurement, compliance, asset, HR, IT and compliance teams• Key member of senior management team executing evacuation of all international team members from South Sudan to Uganda as a result of the civil unrest in the capital of Juba• Designated as Acting Chief of Party and set up project operations in Nairobi, Kenya• Conducted a comprehensive reorganization, electronic conversion and audit of all project documentation in preparation for the anticipated project close-out and audits• Personally executed a complicated and flawless close-out of the project from South Sudan including the inventory and transfer of more than 1,000 government assets, close out of all remaining contracts and bank accounts, dismissal and payment of all local project personnel and, once back in the US, a final review and preparation of project documentation in compliance with Deloitte and USAID requirements

• Benefits Advisor for the Program Management Office for the Ministry of the Interior engaged in critical infrastructure protection of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia• Played a key role in the development of a $24 million training and mentoring program initiative between the Department of Justice's Drug Enforcement Agency and the Saudi Arabian counterpart organization, the General Directorate of Narcotics Control designed to provide training in counter-narcotics to more than 1,000 Ministry drug enforcement personnel• Authored the project plan for an initiative to allow the FBI to provide direct law enforcement advisory support to the Ministry of the Interior• Provided advisory support for charters and plans for multiple initiatives with the Department of Homeland Security• Led internal process improvement initiatives to dramatically increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the PMO including overhaul and reorganization of the all electronic program documentation with standard operating procedures and governance, taxonomy, levels of permission, etc. This intensive effort to catalogue, rename and organize over 10,000 files was a resounding success and greatly enhanced the ability of project managers and auditors to access information as well as increasing overall data security by implementing permission layers and reducing redundant and outdated data• Developed a comprehensive portfolio tracking database with associated standard operating procedures to more efficiently manage the growing number of program initiatives and associated cost and reporting data

• PMO Deputy Director of the JPMorgan Chase Regulatory Consent Order (RCO) project – the largest project in Deloitte history with over 1,200 full time staff in the US and India• Managed the daily operations for IT, logistics, asset management, facilities, space planning, external client requests, onboarding of new personnel, project communications, training and internal policy development• Responsible for project compliance ensuring security, privacy information handling and client requirements were adhered to across the project• Conducted a comprehensive review of the PMO identifying redundancies in duties and work streams and communication issues due to the heavily matrixed team structure and lack of defined roles and responsibilities• Restructured the PMO to be more streamlined and task based leading to significant improvements in efficiency and reduction of ambiguity• Revamped the communications team and led the development of a communications plan, templates and vetting process to radically improve speed, clarity and tracking of internal communications• Led an initiative to upgrade an existing Access based staffing database to a more robust and multifunctional SQL server platform with a SharePoint front end; combining staffing, onboarding, off boarding, logistics, assets and corporate apartment management into a comprehensive real time tool to improve the personnel management of the PMO• Received two achievement awards from senior Deloitte leadership for the significant results of the PMO transformation and program leadership

• Led a feasibility study of cost cutting proposals developed by agencies of the Government of Canada including Border Services, Citizenship and Immigration, International Development and International Research and Development Council• Mapped cost reduction proposals against the organizations mission and structure to identify areas of cost savings beyond the agency proposals• Conducted numerous in-depth interviews with senior agency officials to validate rationale and feasibility of the more than 60 cost reduction proposals• Identified proposals with potential implementation issues and risks that would require mitigation to achieve the stated budget reductions• Conducted an evaluation of the Canadian International Development Agency's Business Modernization Initiative and review of the agency's draft budget reduction submissions, the results of which led the agency to make adjustments to its final submission. The evaluation also highlighted some of the challenges of the office's Business Modernization Initiative in regard to capturing cost and efficiency savings and offered several potential solutions• Led a review of the Citizenship and Immigration agency's call center outsourcing proposal in an effort to improve service delivery and recover $10 million in operational costs

• PMO Director for the $200 million Afghanistan Civil Service Support (ACSS) project responsible for the management and coordination of the Sub-national, Monitoring and Evaluation, Asset, Finance, IT, Communications and Procurement teams• Managed the project work plan and validated multi-million-dollar procurement requests by Afghan government officials• Identified a material weakness in the project’s asset management process and led a team to conduct a comprehensive inventory of all project assets – thousands of items costing tens of millions of dollars – and developed a centrally managed, secure database and standard operating procedures to ensure compliance with US government regulations• Conducted a review of the procurement process and implemented a standardized tracking database and streamlined procedures that dramatically improved the transparency and efficiency of the procurement office and ensured compliance and with FAR and AIDAR regulations• Transformed the way procurements were documented, recorded and processed and strengthened the internal coordination and communication between the PMO, Asset Management, Operations and Finance teams to ensure a more efficient end-to-end process with proper controls at each phase• Developed a detailed project demobilization plan and handled critical Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and Independence issues that were critical to maintaining compliance with federal regulations• Served as the project liaison with the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in the provinces in the southeast and conducted briefs on the ACSS program to the US military leadership, USAID and Department of State representatives in each province and worked with the Afghan governors of each of the five provinces to lay the groundwork for the training of 16,000 civil servants across the country• Led the Sub-national team of 6 expat managers and over100 Afghan advisors across Afghanistan, advised senior Afghan officials on provincial issues

• Led the Certification and Accreditation (C&A) team of information security consultants tasked with conducting FISMA compliant security reviews and remediation recommendations on more than 100 systems over three years• Developed and implemented a completely new process to manage the reviews that included tan updated work breakdown structure, cost estimation, payment procedures, internal tracking reports, bureau status reports, activity based time reporting procedures and corrective action plans• During ten reporting quarters the team completed 89 system certifications on schedule resulting in the Department of State achieving a score of ‘Green’ (100% C&A completion) on the President’s Management Agenda for each of the ten quarters• Achieved revenues of more than $2.4 million and reduced costs by 11% - saving the government more than $375,000 over the course of the program• Led the implementation of the Kronos internal automated time-tracking system designed to provide activity based cost information at the task level to support a department wide fee for service initiative• Developed detailed reports based on the cost and time data from the highly successful Kronos implementation that that resulted in cost reductions of more than $250,000 annually• Conducted a review of the past and current contracts and identified an overcharge of more than $100,000 which was subsequently credited back to the client by the government contractor• Received two achievement awards from senior BearingPoint leadership and four letters of appreciation from Department of State executives for the outstanding results achieved as the program lead

• Conducted an analysis of the Bureau of Information Resource Management’s Iraq communications equipment procurement process and developed a comprehensive standard operating procedure guide using MS Visio and business process mapping best practices

• Served as National Security Advisor and Counter-terrorism/Special Operations Liaison to the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior supporting the leadership of the newly formed Interior Ministry’s armed forces fighting the insurgency in cooperation with US forces• Participated in combat patrols with Marine Corps and Army units in Fallujah and across Baghdad to provide up to date intelligence to the Department of State• Advised the Deputy Ministry of the Interior on potential human rights abuses in Anbar Province as well as the conduct of counter-terrorism units in the field• Acted as the direct liaison between the senior Iraqi commander in Fallujah and Coalition personnel in Baghdad• Assisted in the planning and successful execution of a joint Iraqi and US military operation to remove over 2,000 Iraqi citizens illegally residing on property owned by the Ministry near Sadr City. This operation had international press coverage and, despite threats of violence, was carried out without incident.• Developed a comprehensive brief on the status, locations and strength of Interior Ministry forces as well as leadership biographies for senior military commanders• Assisted in the coordination of the Iraqi Advanced First Responder Network (AFRN) project, a 160 million dollar communications network connecting 15 cities across Iraq• Served as the liaison between Lucent Technology (the contractor implementing the system), the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior and the Department of State and participated in site surveys with Lucent project managers and engineers in cities across Iraq• Authored a point paper detailing the benefits of the AFRN program for senior embassy officials and was instrumental in securing high-level Iraqi support for the project implementation

• ROTC Coordinator responsible for the scholarship recruiting team for the state of New York and western Connecticut. Completely retrained the team and instituted a new database tracking system (Goldmine) to replace the legacy Excel-based system. This overhaul directly contributed to NRD Buffalo finishing number 1 in the nation of 31 districts and achieving 170 percent of its assigned goal.• Investigating Officer responsible for 4 internal investigations into recruiter malpractice. All charges were thoroughly investigated and resulted in successful prosecution of the offenders.• Air Show Coordinator responsible for 2 Blue Angels air shows. Acted as the primary liaison for all public affairs and logistics for the Navy’s Blue Angel Flight Demonstration Team, Air Show Production Team and civilian airport management.• Great Lakes Cruise Coordinator responsible for the oversight of all public affairs and logistics for 2 US Navy warships visiting 7 New York ports over a 3-month period. This event, the first of its kind, resulted in ship tours for more than 40,000 people and increased the Navy’s visibility in this non-coastal region.• Officer Recruiter responsible for officer production in the central New York region. Generated 16 new officer accessions including 3 high priority nuclear officers in addition to the duties listed above.

• Naval Flight Officer- Tactical Coordinator for Combat Aircrew 6. As the senior Naval Flight Officer for Crew 6 during more than 1200 hours of air operations responsibilities included; determining appropriate tactics, operating all weapons systems, overseeing navigation and delegating and coordinating tasks to the 11-man crew. Flight operations included combat air patrols, search and rescue, submarine tracking and prosecution, mine laying operations, drug interdiction, maritime air patrols, intelligence gathering and surveillance.• Assistant Senior Watch Officer responsible for the squadron officer watch bill and training all officer and enlisted watch standers.• Tactics Officer responsible for training and oversight of all tactical missions. Conducted lessons learned and tactical upgrade training for junior flight officers. Instrumental in the coordination of Exercise RIMPAC 98 - coordinating 13 squadron missions to provide 24-hour flight support of a multinational battle group force.• Ground Training Officer responsible for maintaining all aircrew training records. Revamped a cumbersome and outdated training plan that tracked more than 130 aircrew personnel. The resulting computer database enabled successful coordination of the scheduling of all training and qualifications for the squadron’s aircrew up to one year in advance. This ensured a record of zero-lapse of qualifications for the squadron thus directly contributing to the squadron’s flight readiness and mission completion.• Aviation Electricians (AE) Branch Officer responsible for leading the 13-person workshop in charge of maintaining the electronics gear for 11 aircraft. Tthe AE Branch achieved a “zero discrepancy” evaluation conducted by the Commander of Naval Air forces in the Pacific - 1 of only 2 branches Maintenance Department to achieve that standard.• Honor Graduate and Commander Markey Award winner during Naval Flight Officer Training• Honor Graduate during Aviation Officer Candidate School

• Served in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm as part of the First Marine Division's assault elements Task Force's Ripper and Grizzly from Saudi Arabia to the liberation of Kuwait City.• Embarkation Section Chief responsible for coordinating all movement of the Battery equipment for each deployment including Desert Storm. Responsible for the security of 8 howitzers, 20 5-ton trucks and 12 Humvees as well as all associated equipment. As Section Chief, all equipment was undamaged and accounted for and all deployments were successfully completed on schedule.• Assistant Gunner on an M-198 Howitzer crew responsible for aiming and firing operations for the 10 man gun crew.• Ordinance Specialist on an M-102 Howitzer crew responsible for fusing and loading ammunition for the 7 man gun crew.